Conservatives Are the Problem, Right? Think Again!

***UPDATED 3/22/09***

I've conferred with my counsel and agreed it was a *bit* rash to give Commenter on "Badge of Honor" post's complete name and IP address on this blog post. I have retained a copy of the original information in case it becomes necessary to follow up the harassment in her local jurisdiction.

In addition, after careful consideration of the well-thought out comments by "Unkind Mind", and having had conversation with Dannette, I have decided to remove Dannette's rather hasty and inflammatory remarks. In claiming the high ground, I truly shouldn't have let them stand as long as they did, but I am still incensed at the reasoning that liberals get to say any nasty thing to conservatives that they want, but if a conservative says anything even *remotely* snarky back (yes, I admit, this was more than simple snark), it gets jumped on like the snarky one was the Antichrist ... or for the liberal translation ... George W Bush or someone like that.

Unkind Mind ~ I appreciate your well-reasoned second comment, and have achived it as a reminder to myself that I must strive even harder to remain consistent in application of which comments stand and which do not. I stand before the blogosphere, humbled and convinced more than ever that I am *not* perfect, nor will I ever be.

However, I am removing your comments and Dannette's in the hope of keeping the flames to a minimum.

~ MizDi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow … unbelievable …. Sometimes I check my personal email during lunch, and sometimes I get notifications of comments to the blog. Unless they’re truly inflammatory, disgusting or, in the words of many individuals on Ravelry who don’t know any better, “vile” I let them stand. I prefer to let Liberals show themselves for what they are.

What I didn’t realize, however, is that Liberal trolls really hate to be ignored. Y’see, there’s this one individual from Ravelry that used to cause us no end of grief in the Bunker because she was obsessed with us … simply couldn’t leave us alone. No amount of trying to get members to just ignore the woman would work, because she’d just keep harping at us to get *someone* … *anyone* to respond.

So, Thursday I got notification of a comment posted. I didn’t recognize the name (I don’t *know* her y’see) and it wasn’t “vile”, so I let it stand. “I’m still here,” she said, which I took to mean something like “Nyah, nyah … I play by Rav rules so I’m still here while you’ve been banned.”

Ah, another of my favorite weiners -- I mean whiners. You know, after reading this page, you have my vote for sainthood. Rarely does one come across someone of the blessed innocence of Mother Theresa, yet here were a whole 600 of you, and we all failed to understand. Certainly all our correspondence was full of the milk and honey of human kindness.

The only solace I can offer is that you, and all those other saints who were viciously and maliciously expelled from the invective-flinging fiber society, will have special seating in the Rapture section, where God Himself will be able to judge the absolute veracity of your claims.

Good luck with that. Oh, and BTW... I'm still there.

Posted by: Commenter on "Badge of Honor" post | Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 02:55 PM

Hmmm …. So I check today’s comments and there’s another from her (which shows above this entry) … the first one wasn’t much, but when put with this second entry, it made me pause a little.

Dear MizDi,

I have a problem. A lady who claims to believe in free speech keeps taking my perfectly reasonable posts off her site, just because I am a liberal. Gosh, I have a RIGHT to free speech ANYWHERE I WANT, right? So why are you taking my posts off? It couldn't be that you recognize that troublemakers aren't wanted, could it? It couldn't be that you know, down in your heart of hearts, that the situation isn't as saintly as you present it...

Anyway, I just wanted to say that Ravelry was less fun without you there, but now that I know how to find you, life is back to wonderfully screwy.

Your friend,

Me

Posted by: Commenter on "Badge of Honor" post | Friday, March 20, 2009 at 03:47 PM

(Apparently she didn’t know that my blog only shows a certain number of comments on a page until you have to press the little chevron button thingie above the box where you post comments … whatever … oh, and remember that I don't know this woman ... I've seen her "ravatar" and have avoided engaging with her when I saw what a pain in the tuckus she was to fellow Bunker members.)

But that was only a little less freaky and sad … until I opened my email account and saw that this woman simply *refuses* to be ignored.

<<<The email that was formerly posted here, which I felt was threatening, has been removed. It has been archived for use if it should need to be turned over to law enforcement.>>>

Even though she claims I've been deleting her comments, I think the best way to give this woman her free speech is … oh, I don’t know … let all of her harassing comment posts to my blog stand and let my readers decide what’s what.  Let me clarify ... posting a person's harassing email is a *bad* idea ... don't do this. Her comments, though, were posted of her own free will.

So, let me make this clear-–

The Constitution gives us the First Amendment, which does indeed give you to the right of free speech. However, that said, it does not give you the right to be heard or the right to be read. Additionally, nowhere in the Constitution does it say that by giving you the right to say what you want it compels me to put up with a threatening or abusive tone, nor does it abrogate my freedom to determine with whom I choose to communicate or decline said communication. As the owner of this blog, it is my right to determine whether you will be given a place to air your views.

If you’d like to take your “issues” to the nearest “free speech plaza” or “hate free zone”, you are perfectly welcome to do just that, and I would invite you to do so.

Poster & Emailer, what you have begun is nothing short of a pattern of harassment, which is clearly a direct by-product of the site administrators of Ravelry keeping available, for all to see, their misleading, inflammatory, disingenuous, and libelous accusations against members of the former Ravelry Bunker group and now the off-site Bunker group. (Let me remind you that the site admin expressed appreciation and approval for an off-site venue, in an attempt to keep confrontations to a minimum.) By labeling a group of people as “dangerous to our community” when he’s actually just unwilling to admit publicly that he disagrees with them to the extent that he’d prefer they weren’t around, he’s fanned a lot of unwarranted flames, and unwarranted “flames”, too.

My counsel advises that I remind you that your IP address can be traced right to your home if it becomes necessary and that, should you choose to continue, we will inform the proper local authorities in your jurisdiction, file a formal complaint of harassment and stalking (that’s a crime, remember), and let them take you in hand and school you about what’s ok and what’s not.

So, please accept my invitation to just go away and keep to sites where you can contribute something positive, mmmK?

Comments

[Tammy]

Wow! Just wow! Sounds more to me like she's bored on Ravelry without us to harass. I'm glad to know that Casey and Jess were at least asking her to "play nice" for awhile before they got sick of being badgered by people like her.

[Suzanne]

You are Awesome MizDi! Now maybe everyone will see what we have had to put up with for so long.

[Caraboo]

And the fun part about all of this is that now that we've had our group closed and we've been banned, we discuss politics even more and they can't see a thing. It must be killing them.

[MsJ]

I'm sorry that one of Rav's biggest whack jobs has found your blog. Wonder where her side kick is, she will probably be along later.

Remember that time this particular nut job went off her medication and was going from group to group telling anyone who would listen "I have a stalker" "I have a stalker" "I have a stalker", I swear I never laughed so hard in my life. Little did we know she was the one doing the stalking. Truth be known, as crazy as she is she was probably stalking herself. (LMAO)

[Poster's name removed] is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Lucia]

MizDi, I am so sorry you are being harassed in this way. In addition to raising your blood pressure, it makes all of us liberals look bad. Belittling your religion is not "perfectly reasonable," it is, well, vile, and from there it just gets worse, if possible.

Please believe me: we are not all like this. No one I know (and I know a lot of liberals) would act like this.

[MizDi]

Thank you, Lucia. I appreciate your kind words and understanding. I really see no reason for Liberals and Conservative to keep from getting along. The problem is that not all of us (from either side of the fence) are willing to act like grown-ups and remember that we *are* allowed to agree to disagree. If one person *truly* wants to try to "understand" the other (rather than make a pretense of it, as we so often found on Ravelry), it's important to use rational dialogue instead of going straight for personal attacks when one's talking points "go over like a lead balloon", as was so often the case for us when people would come try to make trouble.

I hope you can continue to be a voice of reason and truer tolerance among those who share your world view. I'll continue to do the same with mine. And perhaps someday we'll be successful, eh?

[Lizzie]

I'm glad [poster to "Badge of Honor" post] is still there in the cesspool that is Ravelry. She is in good company on Ravelry.

As disturbing as I find her comments and actions, I'm really pleased she is stupid enough to show her true colors so visciously and publicly. More proof that the lunatics & bullies are running Ravelry and more proof that we did nothing to deserve this harsh treatment.

I'm very sorry that you are being haraased by this psycho.

[knittyhorse]

Thanks to Sharon, the world can witness the obsession certain far-left wackjobs had with the Ravelry Bunker. Apparently, this particular junkie is really jonesin' for The Bunker.

[bystander]

For shame. Are your hurt feelings really worth this sort of behavior? You have no sense of common decency. From the earliest days of BITNET and then USENET this sort of behavior would not stand. This is truly the Endless September.

** Actually, no, they're not ... I've deleted the offensive comment, and the follow-up that fanned the flames. However, I will not tolerate out and out harassment, so the post remains, though edited to communicate that I thought better of having allowed an inflammatory comment to stand, and I've removed some of the more "particular" information regarding Sharon from the post. That information, however, is still available to me if I should have to get law enforcement involved. Internet stalking is a crime.

[crystal]

wow, this [poster to "Badge of Honor" post] chick must really have a torch for your mizdi!
and good for you for seeking counsel to deal with that nutbar, no one should every have to be harassed that way. . . .

[Heather]

love (1000)
It's unfortunate the wack job followed you offsite (which I thought was against Ravelry rules), but I'm glad you're posting her stuff so all the world can see the truth.

[The UNKIND mind]

MizDi, I am glad that we came to a certain understanding, despite the unpleasant terms surrounding it. Thank you for your rational thinking, I hope that people from both sides can continue with it.

[Bingo Malingo]

This [poster to "Badge of Honor" post] person sounds like Deb Frisch.

I'd suggest, if she gets too out of line, having her brought up on charges.

[MizDi]

That's exactly what I thought, and also why I feel like I should nip it in the bud *now*.

My blog has never been one that gets a bazillion hits. I write for myself, a few friends, some others that have discovered my little blog and come back for more. Typically, I get between 50-100 hits per day, with a lot of consistency based on a few blog posts in the past 3 years. So one day, when I started getting *hundreds* of hits, I naturally decided to check my SiteMeter account and see where the traffic was coming from. I'd never heard of Deb Frisch, but I learned quickly, 'cause that's where the hits originated. I read up (on Michelle Malkin, I think?) Ms. Frisch's history and got a little freaked. Some of her followers take her pretty seriously.

Imagine my comfort level when I learned that Ms. Frisch had been let go from her teaching position at a university due to her internet activity/proclivities ... and moved to Oregon (where Gdansk on the Willamette is), and that she had been hired down the road in Eugene ... shudder.

[Craig]

My counsel advises that I remind you that your IP address can be traced right to your home if it becomes necessary and that, should you choose to continue, we will inform the proper local authorities in your jurisdiction, file a formal complaint of harassment and stalking (that’s a crime, remember), and let them take you in hand and school you about what’s ok and what’s not.
=====================================

I am Sharon's husband and a practicing attorney of 23 years. Please provide me with your counsel's contact information. He is apparently suffering from a lack of full information regarding this situation and is thus not fully advising you.

[Caraboo]

Hi Casey!

[Squeekz]

yep, that Deb Frisch is a nutty one, as a quick google search shows.

glad it wasn't her...

http://e-airs.org/eAirsInternet/InmateChargeList.aspx?AIRSNum=1675174

[Vosgie]

Politically, I'm libertarian leftist (though as is the case with most Americans who's spent time abroad, those words don't necessarily mean what you think they might mean). From my personal experience I can say politics is just an excuse for whatever is wrong with a lot of Ravelers. Inability to think critically is the problem, along with a bad case of estrogen poisoning ("We all have to agree! We all have to be supportive! Ugh, let's pick on the weird girl until she develops an eating disorder!").

I was the unwilling pinata in a recent Ravelry bashfest, and I'm sitting there thinking, damn, I thought this was a site about knitting, guess I heard wrong. It's a real shame because I can't think of a better way for people who have opposing political views to get to know each other as people instead of The Enemy, which is the recent destructive trend, than to talk about how they both enjoy making beautiful things.

I don't know what world all these freaky Ravelers live in, but in mine, I changed light bulbs for my Bush-supporting septuagenarian neighbor (RIP), stayed professional and civil to my adultery-committing, midlife-crisis-chasing boss, and was friendly with various Vietnam vets that I made an acquaintance with over the years. And you know something? I like that. What is the point of America, of life, if you don't connect with people who are completely different from you?

Anyway, those puffed-up wannabe bullies on Ravelry = Jerks. Whatever they call themselves, they're just jerks to me.